In a video message to employees today (internal use only), Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers challenged all Cisco employees to “cancel one trip this quarter and use Web 2.0 collaboration technologies to conduct your business in lieu of traveling.” Chambers made the video from his laptop computer…and, yes, as most of us mere mortals do, one never quite knows where to look when using a webcam. : )As I see it, his challenge has many goals. It is a way to demonstrate the power of our collaborative technologies (be it TelePresence, WebEx or MeetingPlace). After all, if we don’t demonstrate our technology to customers and potential customers, how are they going to see the power of the network and our technologies. Sure, it’s also a way to save some dough — we are, after all, a frugal company, which our shareholders and investors love. And, sure, it’s also a way to take some strain off of the environment.However, he also used it as a challenge to spend more time with our families. After all, if we are on the road one less time a quarter, then that means we get to spend that much more time with our families. So, QOL and QOS all wrapped into one, if you will, by using Cisco collaborative technologies. A happy employee is a productive employee after all.And, he didn’t go this far, but I will: What other companies are up to the “Cisco Collaborative Technologies Challenge”? Yeah, I just made that up, but it sounds good. If you are a Cisco TelePresence customer or a WebEx customer or a MeetingPlace customer…or, heck, even someone who (heaven forbid!!) uses one of our competitors in this collaboration space and you are willing to take this challenge to increase your Quality of Life by reducing one business trip a quarter by using the network, drop me a line and I’ll highlight you in this space…heck, maybe you’ll even get your own blog entry…if you are willing to share your video message to employees making the same “cut one trip a quarter” challenge, I’ll post the video.Happy collaboration and happy QOL. Thanks, John, for challenging us all to use the network to cut our travel.

Some of the individuals posting to this site, including the moderators, work for Cisco Systems. Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors, not of Cisco. The content is provided for informational purposes only and is not meant to be an endorsement or representation by Cisco or any other party. This site is available to the public. No information you consider confidential should be posted to this site. By posting you agree to be solely responsible for the content of all information you contribute, link to, or otherwise upload to the Website and release Cisco from any liability related to your use of the Website. You also grant to Cisco a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free and fully-paid, transferable (including rights to sublicense) right to exercise all copyright, publicity, and moral rights with respect to any original content you provide. The comments are moderated. Comments will appear as soon as they are approved by the moderator.